


You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.

by thisisamadhouse



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, when magic meets real life medicine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 10:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13809696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisamadhouse/pseuds/thisisamadhouse
Summary: Angsty OQ 4B reunion





	1. Chapter 1

Robin is standing there, waiting for something, anything to happen. He knows he is in the right place, he memorized the route when he left with Roland and Marian. Every tree on the side, every crevice in the road, he absorbed it all, both so he could come back, and to distract himself from the heart wrenching pain of leaving  _her_ behind.

They had walked and walked and followed every instructions Regina had given them. The further they had gotten from the line, the more Robin had realised something wasn’t quite right. At first, he had thought his heart was beating strangely, and he had wondered if the old sayings were true, if a heart could truly be broken.

Until he had understood that it wasn’t just his heart he was feeling, it was  _hers_  too. How he had come to that conclusion he has no idea, but he is convinced it’s the truth. It’s strange, she had told him there was no magic beyond the town line and yet…

It had taken some time to get used to this sensation, to this connection, but he had ceased to question it when he had become able to discern her moods through the changes in her heartbeat. He is now able to tell when she is awake or sleeping, when she is calm or angry, and most of all he can tell when she is crying. That one is the worst, because he can picture her, tears running down her face, her breathing shallow, struggling to get enough air, and it hurts more than anything else has ever before, especially when he knows there is absolutely nothing he can do to make it better.

It plagues his every thoughts and dreams, and there are days, when he is struggling to be the man and father Marian and Roland need him to be, where he curses this tie. On most days though, he feels like he couldn’t breathe if it stopped.

Weeks of a sweet torture, but lately there is something different, a growing sentiment of anguish that torments him. Last night, he suddenly woke up from his dream of a warm embrace, tangled limbs, soft skin under his eager lips and dark hair weaving through his fingers, when a sensation of panic invaded him. She was in danger was his first thought, and he needed to act.

It is irrational, he has no idea how to cross back the line into Storybrooke, it is supposed to be impossible, but he couldn’t stay here and do nothing. He had roused Marian and told her he was leaving, that he would be back as soon as possible, that he would call them, but he had to do it.

He has been standing here for hours now, the panic only intensifying as time goes by. Without any warning, a wave of energy sends the barrier crumbling like broken glass, and Robin can finally see the “ _Welcome to Storybrooke_ ” sign. He doesn’t hesitate and starts running.

He doesn’t stop until he has reached the main street, and what he sees causes his heart to stop.  _No, no, no_ , is the only word his mind can come up with as he closes the distance separating him from  _her_. He is vaguely aware of the surprised gasps at his appearance, but he only has eyes for Regina, laying on the ground, pale and still, too still. Emma Swan is by her side, two fingers at her pulse, but he isn’t sure that it is very efficient given how much her hands are shaking. There is blood on them, but it’s not hers. There are stains on Regina’s clothes and Robin feels cold all of a sudden because he realises he can’t feel the connection to Regina’s heart anymore, and he doesn’t know if it’s because they are finally reunited or if… No, there is no alternative, there can’t be.

The next few hours are blurry, the only clear thing is her face from which he can’t take his eyes off until he has to, when the doctor and nurses take her away from him to examine her.

He doesn’t know how long it takes, Emma Swan and Snow White and her husband are all around him, saying words he doesn’t hear and can’t process. He thinks they ask him questions, but he doesn’t answer, he only stares blankly at the door behind which his soulmate is being treated. He thinks he should care about what happened, what led to this, and who is responsible, but it would take an energy he doesn’t have. Henry joins them at some point, and he and Robin exchange a look, the same lost and terrified expression on their faces, the same thoughts of "what if" whirling in their minds.

Eventually, the doctor comes back bearing news, and there are more words which don’t really make much sense to Robin. The other man talks of extensive injuries caused by magic, and Regina and Emma trying to heal them, but it was too much, too fast and her body reacted badly. A clot left her heart, and went to her brain, obstructing vessels in the area responsible for the speech. They were able to act quickly enough to dissolve the clot, but there may be damages done. Only time will tell.

Robin makes Whale repeat three times before any of it begins to stick. He is allowed in her room after being given more instructions and sterile scrubs. Tears form in his eyes at the sight that greets him. She looks so small in the hospital bed, with all the tubes connected to her, helping her breathe, bringing fluids, bringing  _life_ and it’s overwhelming and so so wrong.

She is as white as the sheets she is lying on, her usually red and full lips have lost their colours. She is a force of nature, a force to be reckoned with, and so many have tried to bring her down but she never let them. It’s not right that it’s her own body that turned against her.

He sits by her side, and lets the tears fall, and the words come easily, they always do when he is with her. “You have to be alright, you have to make it, there is no other options. I had to go out of town because there was no other way, and it was excruciating, but at least I knew you were fine,” he pauses, and cocks his head, sniffling. “Well, mostly. I knew that you were alive and healthy. I don’t know if you felt it too, I don’t really know how this works, but our hearts were linked all this time, and I’m not sure how I am supposed to go back, or even go on, if I can’t feel your heart beating alongside mine. It’s selfish, you deserve so much more, but Regina you need to wake up because I can’t do this without you. The curse on the town line no longer exists but does it change things? You’re usually the one with the answers, and I love that about you, how you’re always ahead of all of us and we can only try and struggle to keep up.”

He talks to her for hours, until his throat is dry and raspy. Henry, Emma, Snow, they all relay at her side but he never leaves. They try to tell him to go for a while, to get some rest, get his bearings back, but he refuses every time. He is physically unable to.

When finally Regina blinks her dark eyes open, Robin is close to weeping with joy. It doesn’t last for long though, because it soon becomes obvious that even if she recognizes him, saying his name is a struggle, and he understands what the Doctor warned them about. She tries to speak again, and starts to panic when it doesn’t work.

They are told that the words are there, on the tip of her tongue, but her brain can’t properly manage them, they jumble together, one taking another’s place, and it kills Robin to see Regina like this. She is frustrated, easily tired, and in the weeks and months that follow, there are a lot of tears and screams and slammed doors. Robin is conflicted with what to do about Roland and Marian, and he can’t burden Regina with this. She needs him, and no matter what the rest of her family says, he knows Regina can’t stand to have them too close. Not when she can’t properly tell Snow to shut up and stop with her hope speeches while smirking about it, not when she can’t properly quip back at Charming, or send scathing nicknames in the Pirate’s direction. It’s with Henry that it’s the hardest, but the boy is every bit as resilient as his mother and, just like Robin, he knows when to push and when to leave her alone.

It’s tough, it’s agony, it’s hell, Regina had always been able to rely on her way with words, she was a master manipulator, she learned from the best, and now she has to start learning all over again from the simplest to the most complex word, and her head hurts. Sometimes she wants to give up, but Robin doesn’t let her. A look, a smile, a touch and he coaxes her into taking a break and try again later. It’s a long and slow process, but Regina is a stubborn fighter, and he knows she can do it.

A year later, and she has improved beyond expectations, and when he comes back from dropping Roland at Marian’s place in the nearest city out of Storybrooke, Robin finds her reading a book with Henry, out loud, with almost no glitches, and they both look at her with proud smiles.

“I couldn’t do this without you,” she tells them, her eyes flicking to Robin, a twinkle of something present there.  _She heard him_ , he thinks,  _somehow she did_. They fight together, side by side, hand in hand, because they know how stronger, how better they are together, and when Regina’s words fail her she knows she can always trust Robin to speak for her.


	2. Things you said with no space between us.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This continuation came from a prompt by [Lala Kate](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lalakate)

It’s a habit she has picked up during her speech therapy, when she had found that sometimes it was easier, less taxing, to write rather than speak, that her brain didn’t have as much trouble putting words on a slate or a piece of paper than it did letting them out of her mouth.

Even though it all is months behind them, sometimes, when she is sated, all her muscles tired in the most delicious, satisfying way, as many inches of her skin pressed against Robin’s as she can manage, instead of slurring her way through what he makes her feel, she prefers to trace it over his skin.

With the tip of her fingers, using a tress of her hair as a brush -his personal favourite, as he is very vocal to admit-, painting her way from his chest to his pelvis with her tongue until he is the speechless one, so many possibilities that she never would have considered if it hadn’t been for almost losing her ability to talk. So many things they do not take for granted anymore, though weeks of being separated by the town line had certainly helped with that.

Tonight she is feeling lazy, each and every fibers of her being screams in protest when she moves, she has lost count of how many orgasms they have shared or given one another, making the most of this night where it’s just the two of them, their boys away with their other mothers. Despite all this, she can’t stop smiling, and if she was still worried about her reputation as a fearsome and fearless sorceress, that would probably be cause for concern, but she couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about her.

She is… happy, and she has fought long and hard for that happiness, is still fighting everyday to accept that it’s real, and that there is nothing and no one out there that can take it from her.

“You’re lost in your little world again,” Robin tells her, and she feels the rumble of his voice beneath her ear, soothing her, she has never felt safer than in his arms, the only place where she can let her guard down.

She nods against his chest.

“What are you thinking about?” He asks and her smile widens. She traces a series of letters over his heart and he grins when he puts them together. I love you, three little words he will never get tired of hearing, or feeling as it is.

“As I love you, Milady,” he replies, bending his head as she raises hers, catching her lips in a deep kiss.

“And I couldn’t be happier,” she rasps, his lips now against her forehead, his arms tight around her.

“I thank my lucky star everyday that we were given another chance for that to happen,” he whispers in her hair, inhaling deeply.

Yes, this is how it should be, how it should have always been, and it may have taken several curses and near death experiences to bring them here, but they wouldn’t take anything back for the world if it meant risking messing with what they built.


End file.
